Monday, April 30, 2007
An Inconvenient Truth: Global Warming is Melting the Glaciers... On Mars!
Hard to blame this one on industrial CO2...
+++++
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1720024.ece
From The Sunday Times
April 29, 2007
April 29, 2007
Climate change hits Mars
Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.
Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.
Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth. One of the researchers, Lori Fenton, believes variations in radiation and temperature across the surface of the Red Planet are generating strong winds.
In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet's temperature.
Fenton's team unearthed heat maps of the Martian surface from Nasa's Viking mission in the 1970s and compared them with maps gathered more than two decades later by Mars Global Surveyor. They found there had been widespread changes, with some areas becoming darker.
When a surface darkens it absorbs more heat, eventually radiating that heat back to warm the thin Martian atmosphere: lighter surfaces have the opposite effect. The temperature differences between the two are thought to be stirring up more winds, and dust, creating a cycle that is warming the planet.
+++++
But note the effort to blame dust storms on Mars for Martian warming.
Nobody is mentioning the gigantic Saharasia Dust-Dor Cloud which is, by this writer's opinion, at work in the warming of Earth.
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/aerosol_web/loop_html/toms_globaer_gmt_loop.html
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Wi-Fi Health Hazards, but Only If You Are British
Americans, you don't count. So stop bleating and eat your hay.
+++++
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2472133.ece
Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog'
::: Revealed - radiation threat from new wireless computer networks
::: Teachers demand inquiry to protect a generation of pupils
By Geoffrey Lean, environment editor
Published: 22 April 2007
Britain's top health protection watchdog is pressing for a formal
investigation into the hazards of using wireless communication
networks in schools amid mounting concern that they may be damaging
children's health, 'The Independent on Sunday' can reveal.
Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency,
wants pupils to be monitored for ill effects from the networks -
known as Wi-Fi - which emit radiation and are being installed in
classrooms across the nation.
Sir William - who is a former chief scientific adviser to the
Government, and has chaired two official inquiries into the hazards
of mobile phones - is adding his weight to growing pressure for a
similar examination of Wi-Fi, which some scientists fear could cause
cancer and premature senility.
Wi-Fi - described by the Department of Education and Skills as a
"magical" system that means computers do not have to be connected to
telephone lines - is rapidly being taken up in schools, with
estimates that more than half of primary schools - and four-fifths of
secondary schools - have installed it .
But several European provincial governments have already taken action
to ban, or limit, its use in the classroom, and Stowe School has
partially removed it after a teacher became ill.
This week the Professional Association of Teachers, which represents
35,000 staff across the country, will write to Alan Johnson,
Secretary of State for Education, to demand an official inquiry.
Virtually no studies have been carried out into Wi-Fi's effects on
pupils, but it gives off radiation similar to emissions from mobile
phones and phone masts.
Recent research has linked radiation from mobiles to cancer and to
brain damage. And many studies have found disturbing symptoms in
people near masts.
Professor Olle Johansson, of Sweden's prestigious Karolinska
Institute, who is deeply concerned about the spread of Wi-Fi, says
there are "thousands" of articles in scientific literature
demonstrating "adverse health effects". He adds: "Do we not know
enough already to say, 'Stop!'?"
For the past 16 months, the provincial government of Salzburg in
Austria has been advising schools not to install Wi-Fi, and is
considering a ban. Dr Gerd Oberfeld, its head of environmental health
and medicine, calls the technology "dangerous".
Sir William - who takes a stronger position on the issue than his
agency - was not available for comment yesterday, but two members of
an expert group that he chairs on the hazards of radiation spoke of
his concern.
Mike Bell, chairman of the Electromagnetic Radiation Research Trust,
says that he has been "very supportive of having Wi-Fi examined and
doing something about it". And Alasdair Philips, director of
Powerwatch, an information service, said that he was pressing for
monitoring of the health of pupils exposed to Wi-Fi.
Labour MP Ian Gibson, who was interviewed with Sir William for a
forthcoming television programme, last week said that he backed
proposals for an inquiry.
Another Letter on the Greenhouse-CO2 Theory
Dear J.T.,
As to my criticisms of the greenhouse-CO2 theory, and the Dispatches Channel 4 film "The Great Global Warming Swindle", I am reminded of a statement by Reich, when his later work upset some of his associates. "They want my roses, but not my thorns". My work has, without wishing or intending it, thrust me into the global-warming greenhouse-CO2 debate, on the side of the critics of the CO2-greenhouse theory. While I have been a working environmental-earth-atmospheric scientist and renewable energy advocate over decades, I must separate from the current brand of "environmentalism" making these unsupportable claims about CO2, which seems more driven by political urges than good science.
In my view, the Dispatches did a reasonable job bringing some of the central issues into discussion, and so I disagree with your view, even though I have my own quibbles with it. There was one climatologist interviewed in it who became intimidated by the incredible venom thrown his way afterward, so he back-pedaled, and this did not surprise me. I got several cursing, spitting-rage emails for daring to post out the item you objected to in more rational and friendly words. Typically in public forums, if you question the greenhouse-CO2 theory, you are greeted with intense hatred and character assassination, similar to openly questioning "infectious HIV" as the "cause of AIDS". (AIDS-deniers and CO2-deniers share the same volcano in Hell, I am informed.) Or challenging the mainstream doctors about circumcising baby boys, or giving Ritalin to school-kids. Or, or, or...
Regarding the Independent article you referenced:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2355956.ece
This strikes me as a hit-piece, deliberately twisting the facts. In the real world, it is the advocates of greenhouse-CO2 who have made the most bald-faced misrepresentations, as with the discredited "hocky-stick" graph they use, which is also repeated in the UN IPCC publications, which everyone genuflects to. That offensive graph simply erases both the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age, as if they never existed, which for climatology is akin to an astronomer erasing Saturn and Jupiter from the sky. With the Medieval Warm Period gone, they can falsely claim today is the hottest time in a thousand years or more. With the Little Ice Age gone, they can claim there was no colder period, out of which we have been slowly warming since around 1850. With their "data" all nicely scrubbed clean of offending surges and dips, they can now point to a long-term stable climate over the last 1000 years or more, with this totally anomalous peak going up to the sky over the last 100 years, and beat the alarm gongs that the sky will soon fall. It is sophistry, and on top of it they use Stalinist devices, to accuse their critics of their own dirty-tricks, of "making distorted graphs"!!
Sorry, if you accept that Independent article as authoritative, it only shows you have not dug into the issue sufficiently. Maybe if you see how far they will go with their extremism, it will be revealing: Take a look at this other Independent article, where the journalist accuses those who question greenhouse-CO2 theory to "Holocaust Deniers".
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/johann_hari/article3157.ece
This was repeated more recently by a "top" American journalist:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/02/09/no_change_in_political_climate/
Heavens, who am I to question the authority of newspaper journalists!
OK, you did not like the Dispatches film. Try these:
"Climate Catastrophe Cancelled: What You're Not Being Told About the Science of Climate Change" -- video put together by a group of Canadian climate scientists.
http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?ide=3
More basic info is found here:
Friends of Science: Providing Insight into Climate Science
http://www.friendsofscience.org
CO2 Science
http://www.co2science.org
Still Waiting for Greenhouse
http://www.john-daly.com/
Article Series Skeptical of "Global Greenhouse Gas Warming"
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=156df7e6-d490-41c9-8b1f-106fef8763c6&k=0
Best wishes,
James DeMeo
"Just Say No" Doesn't Work.
This was predictable...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2058066,00.html
$1bn 'don't have sex' campaign a flop as research shows teenagers ignore lessons
· Findings undermine Bush 'keep zipped up' stance
· Survey shows 23% given advice chose to ignore it
Ed Pilkington in New York
Monday April 16, 2007
Ed Pilkington in New York
Monday April 16, 2007
The Guardian
Research shows the US chastity programme, for which teenagers receive silver rings, has no influence on any future decision to have sex. Photograph: Jonathan Dyer/AP
It's been a central plank of George Bush's social policy: to stop teenagers having sex. More than $1bn of federal money has been spent on promoting abstinence since 1998 - posters printed, television adverts broadcast and entire education programmes devised for hundreds of thousands of girls and boys.
The trouble is, new research suggests that it hasn't worked. At all.
It's been a central plank of George Bush's social policy: to stop teenagers having sex. More than $1bn of federal money has been spent on promoting abstinence since 1998 - posters printed, television adverts broadcast and entire education programmes devised for hundreds of thousands of girls and boys.
The trouble is, new research suggests that it hasn't worked. At all.
A survey of more than 2,000 teenagers carried out by a research company on behalf of Congress found that the half of the sample given abstinence-only education displayed exactly the same predilection for sex as those who had received conventional sex education in which contraception was discussed.
Mathematica Policy Research sampled teenagers with an average age of 16 from a cross-section of communities in Florida, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Virginia. Both control groups had the same breakdown of behaviour: 23% in both sets had had sex in the previous year and always used a condom, 17% had sex only sometimes using a condom; and 4% had sex never using one. About a quarter of each group had had sex with three or more partners.
Since his days as governor of Texas, George Bush has been a firm advocate of abstinence education programmes, which teach that keeping zipped up is the only certain way to avoid unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and that to deviate from the norms of human sexual activity is to risk harmful psychological and physical effects. "Abstinence hasn't been given a very good chance, but it's worked when it's tried. That's for certain," he said.
But even in 1990s Texas, where Mr Bush spent $10m a year on abstinence education, the state had the fifth highest teen pregnancy rate in the US. Over the past six years he has stepped up the programme to more than $100m a year. He recently braved ridicule by extending it to adults aged 20-29, an age range in which 90% of people are sexually active.
In the Mathematica survey, which was released by sex education activists after the health department sat on it, the mean age at which the control group, that had been taught about contraception, lost their virginity was 14.9 years. That seems strikingly low, until you look at the mean age of first sexual experience for the abstinence control group - 14.9 years.
In the context of findings like this, health workers and statisticians conclude that it is far better that children have safe sex, with knowledge of and access to contraception, than that they are preached a message of abstinence only to ignore it.
Federal funding for abstinence education began as a small part of Mr Clinton's welfare reforms but was stepped up substantially by the Bush administration. Its supporters claim that the fact that though teenaged pregnancies have fallen in the US from a high of 62.1 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in 1991 to 41.1 births per 1,000 in 2004 shows the campaign is working.
But the Mathematica findings, building on earlier research, cast that optimism in doubt. Anti-abstinence activists have long argued that the movement is dangerous because it leaves young people exposed to the risk of teen pregnancy and infection because the teaching shuns any mention of condoms or contraception. Of about 19m new STD infections in the US each year, almost half are recorded among people aged 15 to 24.
Psychiatric Drugs and the Sexual Misery of Youth.
Sobering words. Copies of Breggin's books are still available on the OBRL on-line bookstore, in the sections on children and health. So is Reich's work, "Children of the Future" which provides clarity and understanding for such chaos in youth.
http://www.naturalenergyworks.net
James DeMeo
+++++++
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55310
VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE
Are meds to blame for Cho's rampage?
Experts say psychiatric drugs linked
Experts say psychiatric drugs linked
to long list of school shooting sprees
Posted: April 23, 2007
By Bob Unruh
Cho Seung-Hui's murderous rampage - during which he killed 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech - is prompting research into gun laws, resident aliens and graphically violent writings. Investigators also may want to check his medicine cabinet, because psychiatric drugs have been linked to hundreds of violent episodes, including most of the school shootings in the last two decades.
The New York Times has reported the killer was on a prescription medication, and authorities have said he was confined briefly several years ago for a mental episode. They also have confirmed that the "prescription drugs" found among his effects related to the treatment of psychological problems.
Dr. Peter Breggin, a prominent critic of psychiatric drugs and founder of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, said even if Cho wasn't taking psychiatric drugs the day of the shooting, "he might have been tipped over into violent madness weeks or months earlier by a drug like Prozac, Paxil, or Zoloft."
While media reports have focused on guns and gun laws, Cho's violent writings and autistic behavior at Virginia Tech and the delay in notifying students and faculty of the beginnings of the shootings, there are those who say the focus should be on his medical history.
"In my book 'Reclaiming Our Children,' I analyzed the clinical and scientific reasons for believing that Eric Harris's violence was caused by prescribed Luvox and I've also testified to the same under oath in depositions in a case related to Columbine," Breggin wrote, referring to the 1999 tragedy when Harris and classmate Dylan Klebold shot and bombed students at the Colorado school until a dozen were dead.
"In my book "The Antidepressant Fact Book," I also warned that stopping antidepressants can be as dangerous as starting them, since they can cause very disturbing and painful withdrawal reactions," he added.
The TeenScreenTruth website, dealing with the campaign to "screen" children for "problems" and then prescribe drugs, has documented an extended list of violent episodes believed connected to the use of psychiatric drugs.
They range as far back as 1985, when Atlanta postal worker Steven W. Brownlee, who had been getting psychotropic drugs, pulled a gun and shot and killed a supervisor and a clerk.
Among the specifically school-related attacks the site documents are:
And just a few among the dozens of incidents cited, but not apparently related to schools:
....
Breggin's conclusion that whatever mental manifestations were causing Cho's dangerous behavior, resulting in a professor asking for him to be removed from her class and two complaints of stalking, there was a solution.
"The answer to vengeful, violent people is not more mental health screening or more potent mental health interventions. Reliance on the whole range of this system from counseling to involuntary treatment failed. There is not a shred of scientific evidence that locking people up against their will or otherwise 'treating' them reduces violence. As we'll see, quite the opposite is true," he wrote. "So what was needed? Police intervention."
He wrote that "it's not politically correct to bring criminal charges against someone who is 'mentally ill' and it's not politically correct to prosecute him or to remove him from the campus. Yet that's what was needed to protect the students. Two known episodes of stalking, setting a fire, and his threatening behavior in class should have been more than enough for the university administration to bring charges against him and to send him off campus."
He continued with a warning, "And what about drugs for the treatment of violence? The FDA has not approved any medications for the control of violence because there are no such medications. Yes, it is possible to temporarily immobilize mind and body alike with a shot of an 'antipsychotic' drug like Haldol; but that only works as long as the person is virtually paralyzed and confined - and forced drugging invariably breeds more resentment.
"Instead of offering the promise of reducing violence, all psychiatric drugs carry the potential risk of driving the individual into violent madness. For example, both the newer antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and Celexa, and the antipsychotic drugs such as Risperdal and Zyprexa, cause a disorder caused akathisia - a terrible inner sensation of agitation accompanied by a compulsion to move about. Akathisia is known to drive people to suicide and to aggression."
He said he's been writing for more than 15 years about the capacity for psychiatric drugs to cause mayhem, murder and suicide, but it wasn't until 2005 when the FDA issued a warning that such drugs produce "anxiety, agitation, panic attacks "
He said in the Columbine case, Harris "looks the most like Cho. Both were very emotionally disturbed in an extremely violent fashion for a prolonged period of time."
Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of Virginia Tech's English department, said Cho's writings were so disturbing he was referred to the school's counselors.
"Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be," she said. "But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."
In a statement posted on the TeenScreen opposition site, Sidney Taurel of Eli Lilly noted that it would be "unreasonable" to expect "that there is such a thing as a risk-free drug."
Another website concerning the psychiatric drugs, called RitalinDeath, also documents some of these cases, as well as additional ones.
Dr. John Breeding concluded in a report shortly after Columbine that there were about five million school children now being given psychiatric drugs, and the number had been doubling every 10 years since the 1970s.
"This has got to be a cause for major alarm in all adults," he said. "The bottom line is that we are giving stronger and stronger psychiatric drugs to more and more children. Many of our children are taking more than one of these drugs at a time, and many of these drugs were never even tested and approved for children."
"Just Say No" Doesn't Work.
This was reasonably predictable, and shows American teens aren't particularly interested to sublimate, religion or not, any more than their parents were at the same age-group. Even the generation of G.W.Bush did not sublimate, and by all historical accounts, Americans have always been a sexually-active bunch, going back to the early Colonial days. A sign of emotional-sexual health, though the money could have been better spent. J.D.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2058066,00.html
$1bn 'don't have sex' campaign a flop as research shows teenagers ignore lessons
· Findings undermine Bush 'keep zipped up' stance
· Survey shows 23% given advice chose to ignore it
Ed Pilkington in New York
Monday April 16, 2007
Ed Pilkington in New York
Monday April 16, 2007
The Guardian
Research shows the US chastity programme, for which teenagers receive silver rings, has no influence on any future decision to have sex. Photograph: Jonathan Dyer/AP
It's been a central plank of George Bush's social policy: to stop teenagers having sex. More than $1bn of federal money has been spent on promoting abstinence since 1998 - posters printed, television adverts broadcast and entire education programmes devised for hundreds of thousands of girls and boys.
The trouble is, new research suggests that it hasn't worked. At all.
It's been a central plank of George Bush's social policy: to stop teenagers having sex. More than $1bn of federal money has been spent on promoting abstinence since 1998 - posters printed, television adverts broadcast and entire education programmes devised for hundreds of thousands of girls and boys.
The trouble is, new research suggests that it hasn't worked. At all.
A survey of more than 2,000 teenagers carried out by a research company on behalf of Congress found that the half of the sample given abstinence-only education displayed exactly the same predilection for sex as those who had received conventional sex education in which contraception was discussed.
Mathematica Policy Research sampled teenagers with an average age of 16 from a cross-section of communities in Florida, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Virginia. Both control groups had the same breakdown of behaviour: 23% in both sets had had sex in the previous year and always used a condom, 17% had sex only sometimes using a condom; and 4% had sex never using one. About a quarter of each group had had sex with three or more partners.
Since his days as governor of Texas, George Bush has been a firm advocate of abstinence education programmes, which teach that keeping zipped up is the only certain way to avoid unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and that to deviate from the norms of human sexual activity is to risk harmful psychological and physical effects. "Abstinence hasn't been given a very good chance, but it's worked when it's tried. That's for certain," he said.
But even in 1990s Texas, where Mr Bush spent $10m a year on abstinence education, the state had the fifth highest teen pregnancy rate in the US. Over the past six years he has stepped up the programme to more than $100m a year. He recently braved ridicule by extending it to adults aged 20-29, an age range in which 90% of people are sexually active.
In the Mathematica survey, which was released by sex education activists after the health department sat on it, the mean age at which the control group, that had been taught about contraception, lost their virginity was 14.9 years. That seems strikingly low, until you look at the mean age of first sexual experience for the abstinence control group - 14.9 years.
In the context of findings like this, health workers and statisticians conclude that it is far better that children have safe sex, with knowledge of and access to contraception, than that they are preached a message of abstinence only to ignore it.
Federal funding for abstinence education began as a small part of Mr Clinton's welfare reforms but was stepped up substantially by the Bush administration. Its supporters claim that the fact that though teenaged pregnancies have fallen in the US from a high of 62.1 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in 1991 to 41.1 births per 1,000 in 2004 shows the campaign is working.
But the Mathematica findings, building on earlier research, cast that optimism in doubt. Anti-abstinence activists have long argued that the movement is dangerous because it leaves young people exposed to the risk of teen pregnancy and infection because the teaching shuns any mention of condoms or contraception. Of about 19m new STD infections in the US each year, almost half are recorded among people aged 15 to 24.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Another Film Debunking Greenhouse-CO2-Driven Climate Change
1. Here is another on-line documentary film critical of greenhouse-CO2 theory, but produced more by the scientists themselves, without the glitz and journalistic devices of the Channel 4 documentary.
"Climate Catastrophe Cancelled: What You're Not Being Told About the Science of Climate Change" -- put together by a group of Canadian climate scientists.
http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?ide=3
2. Regarding "The Great Global Warming Swindle" video, I am informed it is no longer available from YouTube or Google Video. However, a few internet eBay vendors are selling copies of it on DVD. Do a search at eBay for "Global Warming Swindle".
3. Also, in the nature of "balance", here's a website critical of the above Channel 4 Dispatches documentary:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/03/swindled/#more-414
Actually, it is not balanced at all. The author mentions nothing about the discredited "hockey stick" global warming graph, nor about the Medieval Warm Period or Little Ice Age, which are central to the foundational arguments of the greenhouse-CO2 critics. In fact there were major climate changes which pre-date industrial pollution, and which did not result in dramatic sea-level changes or Arctic species extinctions. Issues which scientific critics and advocates have debated back and forth over years in science journals are merely reported as "incontrovertable" for the advocates, in typical lies-of-omission regarding the disparaged "deniers". A review of many of the cited-linked web resources identified at this website also do not validate the greenhouse-CO2 advocates as they claim, but instead validate the critics. Overall, it appears more like a CSICOP missive, setting up straw-man arguments, personally attacking the critics who appeared for interviews (to the point that one of them fearfully issued retractions), and making unreliable comments which cannot be validated. The abuse of terms "deniers", and negative comparisons of CO2 critics to HIV critics, typically indicates they are defenders of orthodoxy on all fronts. Revealing is the comment about one of the scientist critics of greenhouse-CO2, that geographers are "not climate scientists" (attack the credentials, ignore the arguments and work), and that another was retired, and therefore "beyond accountability" (meaning, he could no longer be punished for expressing contrary views).
Other resources of note:
Friends of Science: Providing Insight into Climate Science
http://www.friendsofscience.org
CO2 Science -- A masterful detailed accounting of scholarly research papers documenting the pre-industrial Medieval Warm Period, which was hotter than today, and thereby debunks the central premise of the "greenhouse/CO2" mechanism for the current warming.
http://www.co2science.org
Still Waiting for Greenhouse - an excellent listing and educational going-through of the greenhouse/CO2 arguments, dissecting them and exposing the serious flaws. And in some cases, the serious fraud. The second link below, for example, dissects the discredited and scientifically-invalid "hockey stick" graph of global temperatures, which erased the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age from existence, thereby leaving only the current epoch of warming intact.
http://www.john-daly.com/
For future reference, I have added these three links to a special "Climate Science" section on the OBRL "Links" webpage:
http://www.orgonelab.org/links.htm
Recent Media Articles:
Climate change skeptics say it's hard to get heard
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL1829984220070418
Scientist: Warming not caused by humans
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1176974192195090.xml&coll=1
From a prior OBRL-News-Bulletin:
Article Series Skeptical of "Global Greenhouse Gas Warming"
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/OBRL-News-Bulletin/message/856
Fascinating Useful Tool on Internet
Here is something more optimistic.
If we review data on demographics which overlap into what we would
classify as sex-economic factors, with few exceptions, all world
nations are slowly transforming towards the models of greater
freedom, better education and health, higher status for women, and
greater wealth. It is a slow transformation, but happening
nonetheless
A delightful exposition on this can be seen here:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92
I don't agree with all of what is said here, and know nothing about
the professor who makes the presentation, but the data trends are
factual and important.
In fact, you can review the raw data from the "gapminder" website, here:
http://www.gapminder.org/downloads/applications/
There are several variations, all fascinating useful tools. They all
can be accessed and viewed in real-time on-screen by date, often in
both graphical and mapped form.
A little examination will show the power of this tool.
Enjoy,
James DeMeo
Friday, April 20, 2007
Orgonomy Seminar, NYC, 28 April.
Courtesy Announcement
WILHELM REICH AND ORGONOMY:
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
A ONE DAY SEMINAR OFFERED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE WORK OF WILHELM REICH
April 28th, 2007
For 19 years The Institute for the Study of the Work of Wilhelm Reich has been offering a series of two-hour seminars each spring and fall covering selected topics in orgonomy and the work of Wilhelm Reich. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Reich, the Institute is sponsoring this one-day seminar that will give participants an opportunity to learn about the development of Reich's work and its current application in the fields of medicine, psychology, psychiatry, sociology and child development. The seminar is open to the general public and the interested professional. No prior background in orgonomy or the work of Wilhelm Reich is required.
Presentations:
The Struggle to Preserve and Advance the Work of Wilhelm Reich.
Presenter: Kevin Hinchey,
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust & The Wilhelm Reich Museum.
The Development of Orgone Therapy - an Historical account.
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust & The Wilhelm Reich Museum.
The Development of Orgone Therapy - an Historical account.
Presenter: Harry Lewis, M.A., M.S.W., ED.D. Orgone Therapist & Co-Director (with Daniel Schiff) of The Institute for the Study of The Work of Wilhelm Reich.
Key Concepts in the Contemporary practice of Orgone Therapy.
Key Concepts in the Contemporary practice of Orgone Therapy.
Presenter: Daniel Schiff, Ph.D. Psychologist and Orgone Therapist & Co-Director (with Harry Lewis) of The Institute for the Study of The Work of Wilhelm Reich.
Wilhelm Reich's Scientific Discoveries: An Overview.
Wilhelm Reich's Scientific Discoveries: An Overview.
Presenters: Harry Lewis, Ed.D. and Daniel Schiff, Ph.D.
The Work of Wilhelm Reich in the 21st Century.
The Work of Wilhelm Reich in the 21st Century.
Presenter: Hugh Brenner. Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurse and Orgone Therapist with the Institute for Orgonomic Science.
The Concept of Work-Democracy in the Writings of Wilhelm Reich - An Overview.
Presenter: Philip Bennett, Ph.D. Adjunct Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education, Fairfield University.
Date: Saturday, April 28, 2007
Date: Saturday, April 28, 2007
Time: 9:30 AM - 5:30PM, with 1_ hour lunch break.
Location: Village Community School, 272 W 10th Street (Between Greenwich and Washington Streets), New York, NY. 10014.
Fee: paid prior to 4/28: general public: $70; students and those requesting a scholarship: $50.
paid at the door: general public: $80; students and those requesting a scholarship: $60.
To Register: Call Dr. Harry Lewis at (212) 675-6592, or e-mail him at hlewis@wilhelmreich.net. Space is limited
Make out checks to Harry Lewis, Ed.D. Send check along with your contact information to: Dr. Harry Lewis, 115 Charles Street, New York, N.Y. 10014.
Updated Information may be found on The Institute for the Study of the
Location: Village Community School, 272 W 10th Street (Between Greenwich and Washington Streets), New York, NY. 10014.
Fee: paid prior to 4/28: general public: $70; students and those requesting a scholarship: $50.
paid at the door: general public: $80; students and those requesting a scholarship: $60.
To Register: Call Dr. Harry Lewis at (212) 675-6592, or e-mail him at hlewis@wilhelmreich.net. Space is limited
Make out checks to Harry Lewis, Ed.D. Send check along with your contact information to: Dr. Harry Lewis, 115 Charles Street, New York, N.Y. 10014.
Updated Information may be found on The Institute for the Study of the
Work of Wilhelm Reich website: http://www.wilhelmreich.net.
Beware the CFLs.. Toxic mercury, and more, right inside your home.
Not only do compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) contain toxic mercury, with other toxic materials in the powder-white phosphor, but they also emit low-level microwaves... I have one CFL at OBRL, used only to calibrate and check the operation of our electrosmog microwave "cell phone" meter, which people purchase from us to evaluate the safety of their homes when cell phone towers are nearby. The CFL works great to check the meter, driving it off-scale when the meter is held a few inches from the bulb.
J.D.
+++++
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55213
Consumers in dark over risks of new light bulbs
Push for energy-saving fluorescents ignores mercury disposal hazards
By Joseph Farah
WASHINGTON - Brandy Bridges heard the claims of government officials, environmentalists and retailers like Wal-Mart all pushing the idea of replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving and money-saving compact fluorescent lamps.
So, last month, the Prospect, Maine, resident went out and bought two dozen CFLs and began installing them in her home. One broke. A month later, her daughter's bedroom remains sealed off with plastic like the site of a hazardous materials accident, while Bridges works on a way to pay off a $2,000 estimate by a company specializing in environmentally sound cleanups of the mercury inside the bulb.
With everyone from Al Gore to Wal-Mart to the Environmental Protection Agency promoting CFLs as the greatest thing since, well, the light bulb, consumers have been left in the dark about a problem they will all face eventually - how to get rid of the darn things when they burn out or, worse yet, break.
CFLs are all the rage. They are the spirally shaped, long-lasting bulbs everyone is being urged, cajoled and guilt-tripped into purchasing to replace Thomas Edison's incandescents, which are being compared to suburban utility vehicles for their impracticality and energy inefficiency. However, there is no problem disposing of incandescents when their life is over. You can throw them in the trash can and they won't hurt the garbage collector. They won't leech deadly compounds into the air or water. They won't kill people working in the landfills.
The same cannot be said about the mercury-containing CFLs. They bear disposal warnings on the packaging. But with limited recycling prospects and the problems experienced by Brandy Bridges sure to be repeated millions of times, some think government, the green community and industry are putting the cart before the horse marketing the new technology so ferociously.
Consider her plight.
When the bulb she was installing in a ceiling fixture of her 7-year-old daughter's bedroom crashed to the floor and broke into the shag carpet, she wasn't sure what to do. Knowing about the danger of mercury, she called Home Depot, the retail outlet that sold her the bulbs.
So, last month, the Prospect, Maine, resident went out and bought two dozen CFLs and began installing them in her home. One broke. A month later, her daughter's bedroom remains sealed off with plastic like the site of a hazardous materials accident, while Bridges works on a way to pay off a $2,000 estimate by a company specializing in environmentally sound cleanups of the mercury inside the bulb.
With everyone from Al Gore to Wal-Mart to the Environmental Protection Agency promoting CFLs as the greatest thing since, well, the light bulb, consumers have been left in the dark about a problem they will all face eventually - how to get rid of the darn things when they burn out or, worse yet, break.
CFLs are all the rage. They are the spirally shaped, long-lasting bulbs everyone is being urged, cajoled and guilt-tripped into purchasing to replace Thomas Edison's incandescents, which are being compared to suburban utility vehicles for their impracticality and energy inefficiency. However, there is no problem disposing of incandescents when their life is over. You can throw them in the trash can and they won't hurt the garbage collector. They won't leech deadly compounds into the air or water. They won't kill people working in the landfills.
The same cannot be said about the mercury-containing CFLs. They bear disposal warnings on the packaging. But with limited recycling prospects and the problems experienced by Brandy Bridges sure to be repeated millions of times, some think government, the green community and industry are putting the cart before the horse marketing the new technology so ferociously.
Consider her plight.
When the bulb she was installing in a ceiling fixture of her 7-year-old daughter's bedroom crashed to the floor and broke into the shag carpet, she wasn't sure what to do. Knowing about the danger of mercury, she called Home Depot, the retail outlet that sold her the bulbs.
According to the Ellison American, the store warned her not to vacuum the carpet and directed her to call the poison control hotline in Prospect, Maine. Poison control staffers suggested she call the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The latter sent over a specialist to test the air in her house for mercury levels. While the rest of the house was clear, the area of the accident was contaminated above the level considered safe. The specialist warned Bridges not to clean up the bulb and mercury powder by herself - recommending a local environmental cleanup firm.
That company estimated the cleanup cost, conservatively, at $2,000. And, no, her homeowners insurance won't cover the damage.
Since she could not afford the cleanup, Bridges has been forced to seal off her daughter's bedroom with plastic to avoid any dust blowing around. Not even the family pets are permitted in to the bedroom. Her daughter is forced to sleep downstairs in an overcrowded household.
The latter sent over a specialist to test the air in her house for mercury levels. While the rest of the house was clear, the area of the accident was contaminated above the level considered safe. The specialist warned Bridges not to clean up the bulb and mercury powder by herself - recommending a local environmental cleanup firm.
That company estimated the cleanup cost, conservatively, at $2,000. And, no, her homeowners insurance won't cover the damage.
Since she could not afford the cleanup, Bridges has been forced to seal off her daughter's bedroom with plastic to avoid any dust blowing around. Not even the family pets are permitted in to the bedroom. Her daughter is forced to sleep downstairs in an overcrowded household.
She has continued to call public officials for help - her two U.S. senators included. So far, no one is beating down Bridges' door to help - not even Al Gore, whose Academy Award-winning movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," urges everyone to change to CFLs to save the planet from global warming.
Bridges is not alone.
Elizabeth Doermann of Vanderbilt, Tenn., had a similar experience. After her CFL bulb broke - because the cat knocked over a lamp - she didn't call Home Depot. Instead, she did what she had always done when old-fashioned incandescent bulbs had broken. She vacuumed up the mess.
Elizabeth Doermann of Vanderbilt, Tenn., had a similar experience. After her CFL bulb broke - because the cat knocked over a lamp - she didn't call Home Depot. Instead, she did what she had always done when old-fashioned incandescent bulbs had broken. She vacuumed up the mess.
Only then did she learn about the mercury hazard.
"If I had known it had mercury in it, I would have been a lot more careful," she told the Tennessean. "I wouldn't have vacuumed it up. That blew the mercury probably all through the house."
The warnings on the packages of some of the new bulbs are in fine print - hard to read. They are also voluntary, with many bulbs being sold and distributed with no disposal warnings at all.
Charmain Miles of Toronto, Canada, had another frightening experience with a CFL bulb.
Last month she smelled smoke on the second floor of her home, only to discover it was emanating from a new energy-efficient bulb.
"I was horrified," she told a local TV station. "I went through every place upstairs and took out every bulb."
The bulb had been placed in a track-lighting fixture. Though the bulb contained no warning about such fixtures, it turns out CFLs are not for use in track, recessed or dimmer fixtures.
And while the Consumers Council of Canada advises not to purchase any package of CFL bulbs that contains no instructions, the entire country is on a timetable to eliminate entirely the only alternative - the incandescent bulb.
In fact, practically the whole world - fearing global warming - is getting ready to ban the incandescent light bulb. It started in Cuba, moved to Venezuela, then Australia, Canada and the European Union. Now individual states in the U.S., including California, Connecticut, North Carolina and Rhode Island, are all in the process of legislating an end to Edison's greatest invention. Even local towns and cities are getting into the act.
The rap against the incandescent is that it uses more energy to produce light. Advocates of CFLs say they save money and energy by producing more light over more time for less money and less energy. They prefer to minimize concerns about cleanup and disposal, usually saying more needs to be done in the area of recycling.
But recycling experts say the solutions are at least five years away. Meanwhile, millions of consumers and green activists are being persuaded to make the switch.
"EPA currently doesn't provide a unified message to the public on what to do with fluorescent lamps once they are no longer used," admits a draft announcing plans for a pilot project by the agency.
Yet, the EPA's Energy Star program is one of the major forces behind the push for CFLs.
"Currently the need to recycle mercury in fluorescent lamps isn't mentioned on the Energy Star web page although they are working with the Office of Solid Waste to address this," the memo continues. "This may create confusion to the public about doing the right thing."
In fact, even the memo doesn't advise what the public should do.
No question about it, though. You as a consumer will be required to find certified waste recycling centers to turn in your dead and broken bulbs.
The American Lighting Association has some ideas. It has created a list of five considerations that should be weighed by all legislative bodies considering bans on incandescent bulbs.
The warnings on the packages of some of the new bulbs are in fine print - hard to read. They are also voluntary, with many bulbs being sold and distributed with no disposal warnings at all.
Charmain Miles of Toronto, Canada, had another frightening experience with a CFL bulb.
Last month she smelled smoke on the second floor of her home, only to discover it was emanating from a new energy-efficient bulb.
"I was horrified," she told a local TV station. "I went through every place upstairs and took out every bulb."
The bulb had been placed in a track-lighting fixture. Though the bulb contained no warning about such fixtures, it turns out CFLs are not for use in track, recessed or dimmer fixtures.
And while the Consumers Council of Canada advises not to purchase any package of CFL bulbs that contains no instructions, the entire country is on a timetable to eliminate entirely the only alternative - the incandescent bulb.
In fact, practically the whole world - fearing global warming - is getting ready to ban the incandescent light bulb. It started in Cuba, moved to Venezuela, then Australia, Canada and the European Union. Now individual states in the U.S., including California, Connecticut, North Carolina and Rhode Island, are all in the process of legislating an end to Edison's greatest invention. Even local towns and cities are getting into the act.
The rap against the incandescent is that it uses more energy to produce light. Advocates of CFLs say they save money and energy by producing more light over more time for less money and less energy. They prefer to minimize concerns about cleanup and disposal, usually saying more needs to be done in the area of recycling.
But recycling experts say the solutions are at least five years away. Meanwhile, millions of consumers and green activists are being persuaded to make the switch.
"EPA currently doesn't provide a unified message to the public on what to do with fluorescent lamps once they are no longer used," admits a draft announcing plans for a pilot project by the agency.
Yet, the EPA's Energy Star program is one of the major forces behind the push for CFLs.
"Currently the need to recycle mercury in fluorescent lamps isn't mentioned on the Energy Star web page although they are working with the Office of Solid Waste to address this," the memo continues. "This may create confusion to the public about doing the right thing."
In fact, even the memo doesn't advise what the public should do.
No question about it, though. You as a consumer will be required to find certified waste recycling centers to turn in your dead and broken bulbs.
The American Lighting Association has some ideas. It has created a list of five considerations that should be weighed by all legislative bodies considering bans on incandescent bulbs.
The association of American manufacturers and retail outlets suggests any such legislation include the following provisions:
1. a lumen per watt energy efficiency standard should be established rather than a ban on a specific type of product. It should include a 10-year goal
2. halogen bulbs should be exempted
3. incandescent bulbs 40 watts or less should be exempt
4. collection and disposal plans for mercury-based CFLs should be made prior to any ban;
5. persuade consumers through education rather than coerce them through limiting choices
Governments may indeed be promoting a kind of lighting that is itself nearly obsolete. Fluorescent lights are nothing new. They've been around for a long time. And while they may save money, some say the public hasn't chosen them for good reasons - including, but not limited to, the mercury issue.
Some experts predict the next generation of lighting, though, is LED lights. They are made from semiconductor materials that emit light when an electrical current flows through them. When this form of light takes over, all bulbs will be obsolete. Your wall tiles can light up. Curtains and drapes can light up. Even your dining room table could be made to light up - at exactly the level you want.
That's what is ahead in the next decade, according to some in the industry.
Nobody promoted CFLs as aggressively as IKEA. Not only does the retailer sell them, it also provides one of the very few recycling centers for the burned out bulbs. But even with a plethora of recycling centers, how will the public view the prospect of saving up dead bulbs and transporting them to recycling centers? And how about the danger of breakage in that process?
"The industry is currently aiming at totally mercury-free CFL lighting, but this is still five to 10 years away," admits IKEA.
That's what is ahead in the next decade, according to some in the industry.
Nobody promoted CFLs as aggressively as IKEA. Not only does the retailer sell them, it also provides one of the very few recycling centers for the burned out bulbs. But even with a plethora of recycling centers, how will the public view the prospect of saving up dead bulbs and transporting them to recycling centers? And how about the danger of breakage in that process?
"The industry is currently aiming at totally mercury-free CFL lighting, but this is still five to 10 years away," admits IKEA.
Those who really care about this problem right now are those involved in the waste industry.
"Most agree more energy-efficient light bulbs can significantly curb air pollution, but fewer people are talking about how to deal with them at the end of their lives," explained a page 1 story in the April 2 issue of Waste News. It goes on to explain "there is no plan to address air and water pollution concerns that could develop if consumers improperly dispose of the mercury-containing devices."
Thursday, April 19, 2007
[OBRL-News-Bulletin] Quarterly Newsletter #15, April 2007
OBRL-News Version
OBRL Quarterly #15, April 2007
This is the infrequent, Quarterly version of the OBRL-News-Bulletin,
from the Orgone Biophysical Research Lab (OBRL) in Ashland, Oregon, USA.
Please responsibly re-post and distribute to other interested persons, groups and websites.
If you received this Quarterly newsletter but do not wish to get it in the future, see the information at the bottom.
Topical notices:
1. Summer Guided Independent Study Program on General Orgonomy
We still have several seats open for this program.
A 5-day Guided Independent Study Program in General Orgonomy is being organized, meeting each day and led by James DeMeo, Ph.D., Director of OBRL. Lecture/discussions and demonstrations of apparatus will occur in the mornings, with independent student projects in the afternoons, using the facilities of the lab. Topics to be covered include issues from Sex-Economy, Saharasia, Bions, Orgone Accumulator, Atmospheric Orgone and Orgone Physics, with an emphasis upon their relationship to similar classical science concepts.
Greensprings Center, near Ashland, Oregon, USA
Meeting every day, 10 AM to 6 PM
from 7 - 11 July 2007 - Saturday through Wednesday
Also, 6 July Friday Open House at the Greensprings Center,
and 12 July Optional Field Trip to Crater Lake National Park.
Limited to 10 participants. Make your reservations early.
Click here for more details:
http://www.orgonelab.org/events.htm
or
http://www.orgonelab.org/calendar.htm
or
http://www.orgonelab.org/seminar7.htm
2. Once Again... Other Notable Reich/Orgonomy Conferences in 2007:
* Rangeley, Maine: 29 July - August 1st, 2007
The Wilhelm Reich Museum in Rangeley Maine will host a 4-day event on WILHELM REICH IN THE 21st CENTURY: 2007 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ORGONOMY, with an excellent line-up of speakers and presentations. For more information, see:
* Lancashire, United Kingdom: 13-19 August 2007
The Newly-Registered non-profit institute CORE (Centre for Orgonomic Research & Education) in the UK will host a 7-day event in Lancashire, United Kingdom, also with an excellent line-up of speakers, presentations and demonstrations.
The first 5 days of the event will cover "Orgonomy Today", with Talks and Demonstrations on the Science of the Life Energy, formal speaker's presentations, and an Exhibition of Equipment and Experiments. Monday to Friday, 13-17 August 2007. For more information, see here:
The last 2 days of the event will cover "New Research in Orgonomy", being a weekend Research Seminar for practicing scientists interested in Reich's findings.
Saturday and Sunday, 18-19 August 2007.
A "CALL FOR PAPERS" Notice also has been issued for this event, for professional scientists. A few time-slots are still open. For more information, see here:
* Valencia, Spain: 2-4 November 2007
Conference: 50 YEARS AFTER REICH.A LIFE MOVEMENT. In the Spanish language. For more details, see here:
* Dr. James DeMeo will be presenting several lectures at the above Conferences, along with all the other presenters. Similar info is summarized here:
3. New Book: Wilhelm Reich and the Healing of Atmospheres
We are pleased to announce a new book by Roberto Maglione. Here's the description as it appears in our on-line catalog:
* WILHELM REICH AND THE HEALING OF ATMOSPHERES: Modern Techniques for the Abatement of Desertification, by Roberto Maglione. Translated from the original Italian, with a Foreword by James DeMeo. A scientific overview of Reich's discovery and applications of Cosmic Orgone Engineering, or "cloudbusting" as it is more popularly known. Covers Reich's experiments, and those of his associates and followers: Richard Blasband, Jerome Eden, and James DeMeo, among others. Experiments in the USA, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, all with positive results supportive of Reich's original claims. Comprehensive with numerous photos, diagrams, graphs and full citation-lists. 121 pp. $39.00 Softcover
Orders can be placed via this weblink:
http://www.orgonelab.org/cart/xorgone.htm
4. Work In Progress At OBRL
* Work continues on round-the-clock monitoring of the thermal anomaly in the orgone accumulator, or To-T. Of special note is the observation of a definite increase in the To-T readings starting around mid-March, the time of the Spring Equinox, when the Earth moves into what appears to be a strong streaming or pulse of energy in space.
* Also with continued monitoring, anomalous readings from our orgone-charged GM/neutron counter, which soars episodically to several thousand CPM. A control unit, of identical construction, but not orgone-charged, gives typical readings of 0-2 CPM.
* Our archive project continues, with transfers being made of OBRL's considerable archive of old VHS, U-Matic and Hi-8 videotapes onto digital DVDs, for long-term storage. The VHS collection is nearly finished, but much remains to be done. A section of the laboratory building, in the attic section under the observatory, has been set aside for this purpose.
* Opening of the Greensprings Observatory has been delayed this spring due to exceptional rains and snows, which continue into mid-April.
* Dr. DeMeo was recently invited to undertake drought-abatement operations in Southern France, which along with many other parts of southern Europe, had been suffering under significant dor-haze and drought conditions over several years. The operations, which ran in mid-March, appeared to trigger a renewed episode of rains and snows over the region. A formal report will follow in the future.
5. 2nd Edition of Saharasia -- If you did not get the word...
For English-Speakers, if you haven't yet got the 2nd Edition of Saharasia, with numerous additions to the already-excellent 1st Edition, it can be obtained via here:
http://www.saharasia.org
This webpage also provides downloadable PDFs of the 2nd Edition "Preface" and "Update on Saharasia" Appendix article, so you don't have to re-purchase the full book unless you desire. It also provides summary articles about the Saharasia discovery in English, Spanish, German, Turkish and Greek. We also seek volunteers who could make French, Polish, Italian and Arabic translations of this same summary article, for internet-posting.
6. About the Growing "Orgone" Nonsense on Global Internet
See here: http://www.orgonelab.org/OrgoneNonsense.htm
7. Please review our on-line Fundraising Letter...
and respond with a donation if you are able.
http://www.orgonelab.org/funding.htm
8. Due to the high costs of printing and mailing...
email is today our primary notification method.
If you appreciate getting these materials and have not done so already, and to get "plugged in" to our announcements, please subscribe to OBRL-News or the less-frequent OBRL-Quarterly using the links near the bottom of the OBRL homepage.
http://www.orgonelab.org
The same information presented on the more-frequent OBRL-News is also posted to the OBRL-News Blog, which you can visit at your leisure, here:
http://obrl.blogspot.com/
If you received this Newsletter in error, and do not want it, a simple return email requesting to be removed is all that is necessary. Our email address is a real one, and all requests are read by a living human being, and will be promptly honored and attended to.
Thanks very much for your attention and support.
James DeMeo, Ph.D.
Orgone Biophysical Research Lab
Ashland, Oregon, USA
http://www.orgonelab.org
http://www.naturalenergyworks.net
http://www.naturalenergyworks.net
http://www.saharasia.org
More on "The Great Global Warming Swindle"
Some correspondence was generated from my sending out the notice for the UK documentary film, out of which developed the following letters. More will come on this subject. J.D.
++++++++++
Dear C.,
I'd encourage you to view the entire film, which goes into various details about the greenhouse-gas global warming debate which rarely get mentioned. It presents evidence of significant climate changes over the last several thousand years, especially of the Medieval Warm Period, which was significantly warmer than today, and the Little Ice Age, which ended only around 1850, and from which we have been progressively warming ever since. Given there was no industrial pollution during the Medieval Warm Period, overall the existence of these pre-industrial climate cycles undermines several of the arguments being presented by the greenhouse theory advocates. CO2 as a climate-moderating gas is problematic, but there are other candidates such as ordinary water vapor which are suggested, but which humans historically have not had any control over. Solar variation does have such an influence, however, and good correlations can be shown between solar activity and climate changes. So the film lays down the argument, that the modern climate changes are mostly natural in origins, and not so different from what factually occurred in the past, without big sea-level rises, extinctions of polar bears, etc. Beyond this, the film interviews and summarize evidence from the primary climatologists who are critics of greenhouse warming theory -- or the greenhouse theory of warming, as they do appear to accept that a warming is going on, but simply reject industrial pollution and CO2 as the driving force behind it. They have been shunted aside by the political and media forces, because they argue solar-moderated influences are at work over very long periods.
To dissect this issue into its specific components:
1. Is there a real warming going on, and to what extent?
2. If so, is this being driven by CO2 and other industrial gasses? Or by other human-produced causes? Or by natural processes such as solar variation?
3. If being driven by human activity, does Kyoto Treaty provide a solution?
4. Should we anticipate big climate catastrophes based upon any of this, whatever the cause?
To these questions, I would answer:
1. Yes, there is a slow warming, but at very low levels.
2. CO2 is an unlikely candidate to drive this process. It shows only inexact and even lagging correlations to measured temperature changes, while solar variation has quite a good predictive correlation.
3. Kyoto Treaty appears driven by socialist agendas, and does not address many large chunks of human activity which may be more at fault -- if you accept the human-activity arguments -- than Western industry and CO2. Nevertheless, there are other good arguments for pressing forward with more controls of ordinary air pollution (but not against CO2 necessarily) and reductions of imported fossil fuels. I'm a big advocate of renewable energy over decades.
4. Earth went through the Medieval Warm Period with warmer conditions than today, with a reduced Arctic ice cap, but no significant sea-level changes, nor extinctions of polar bears, etc. Even the big climate disaster of Saharasia, at 4000 BCE did not produce significant sea-level or ice-cap changes, to the best of our knowledge.
I formerly taught all this material in Earth Science and Climatology classes at the university, including the greenhouse theory and criticisms against it. Back then, 30 years ago, the same data was being used to argue for a coming "Ice Age" (based upon a measured cooling over the period c.1900-1940), and "greenhouse warming" was the New Idea in opposition to mainstream thinking, and for a time I also embraced it as a logical counter to the Ice Age hysteria. Today, greenhouse-CO2 advocates are the new dogmatic orthodoxy, decidedly political in their attacks against ideas such as I touch upon above, to the point where we are called "deniers" as in "Holocaust deniers", in major national newspapers. Movie stars and political hacks declare "The Debate Is Over" while climatologists who disagree are not consulted or interviewed, and professionally isolated.
None of this means, air pollution should be ignored or is not a problem. Clearly it is. And Reich's discussions actually have a lot to say about the matter, but not in resonance or support with the kinds of arguments laid down by the greenhouse theory advocates. For example, one of the claimed consequences for greenhouse warming is the spreading of droughts and deserts. My own research, and that of others who focus on the desert issues, is that this claimed causality is backwards. It is the spreading of deserts, and the droughts and heat-waves which are consequent to this spreading, which drives the claimed "global" warming. It isn't really "global" but regional in nature. The regions adjacent to the large Saharasian Desert Belt, discussed in my writings, suffer from repeated droughts and heat-waves. And when temperature data from those regions is averaged into the global statistics, one sees a "global" warming. And in some ways, the warming may spread more widely, but it appears to have a source region within the Saharasian Desert Belt, perhaps assisted a small bit by urban heat-island effects. There is much we do not know, about the relationships between, for example, spreading Saharasian deserts, droughts and heat-waves over land surfaces and open ocean regions, warming of the ocean waters, and subsequent thermal effects upon the air mass and ice sheets.
This more or less flows from Reich's ideas, where we make an equivalence between what the classical climatologist calls "dust particles" or "atmospheric haze" as from deserts, and DOR as described by Reich. You can get a day-by-day review of this process by periodically taking a look at the global desert-dust "TOMS" satellite sensor loop:
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/aerosol_web/loop_html/toms_globaer_gmt_loop.html
This shows, every day, the gigantic influence of the Saharasian Desert Belt, as everywhere those yellow-orange plumes of dust are blown, there is drought and temperature increases, along with the provoking of storms (as DOR provokes healthy OR into stormy reaction).
It appears to me, the greenhouse theory advocates have a part of the truth, a recognition that there is something going on which offends the senses as experienced in large urban regions, the effects of the urban "heat island" and noxious air pollution, while the solar-cycle advocates have another part (more life-energetic, actually), which goes to the core of the long-term climate-change issues. Both tend to focus upon aerosol particles and gas dynamics, without appreciation for anything approximating life-energy. And both tend to ignore the CFP of deserts and drought (except as a consequence), and specifically the Saharasian desert belt is flatly "blocked out" of discussion. The creation of Saharasia was THE largest climate change since the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, and yet it is not discussed anywhere except in my books and articles, and a few of the obscure citations mentioned in them. Even those discussing the Medieval Warm Period or the Little Ice Age appear oblivious to it, that gigantic change from wet and lush to dry and barren, across such a big part of the Earth's surface. And Saharasia continues to have dramatic and powerful influences upon the entire globe, both climatically and socially. But nobody wants to mention it, anymore than they mention Reich. And when I mention it, I am attacked with violent rage. As with this email just received, following my posting out of the notice on the Dispatches movie:
F**k you, motherf**ker. F**k you, a**hole. You know that global warming is a fact.
Do you want to debate it? This is just knee-jerk right-wing bulls**t.
You discredit the scientific integrity of Reich. Marco Ermacora
This, from a "Reichian" (therapist?) no less, and one of many similar ones I have got over the years whenever I have dared to express an opinion which went against PC "consensus".
I view this as a kind of emotional resistance, an emotional denial and "outrage reaction" against looking at the core of not only what creates the biggest climate problems, but which historically is the point of origins of human armoring in ancient history, and which underlays much of the modern international disaster. It provides powerful support to Reich on the larger "origins of violence" question, and the "dor-crisis" question, but not in the usual "politically correct" manner which some people desire. If you "hit the nail on the head", those who are emotionally protecting that nail become very upset.
From this standpoint, "greenhouse CO2 warming" is an evasion of the essential. Just look at the TOMS satellite images. Why is nobody speaking about this, which is pumping toxic stuff all around the planet every day, in quantities far greater than anything from industrial pollution. Only agricultural burning in third world regions gets close, but since that is biogenic aerosols, and does not have an intrinsicially DOR-ish character, it tends to be a good hydroscopic cloud condensation nuclei, and so does not have the drying influence of the desert haze, which contains both dor and dust particles. My forthcoming book on the subject of my weather-work will go into this matter in more details.
Best wishes,
James DeMeo
PS. I found some eBay vendors selling DVD versions of "The Great Global Warming Swindle", so if it is taken down from Google Video, it might still be available that way. I also will be adding several excellent books on climate cycles and critiques of greenhouse theory, from purely classical viewpoints, to the OBRL on-line bookstore,
http://www.naturalenergyworks.net
++++++++
Dear C.
Clearly we have a disagreement on the Dispatches film, which I found fascinating and of great interest precisely because it exposed a lot of issues which normally don't get the time of day from regular media. The Channel 4 Dispatches program is the same group who produced "The AIDS Catch" and "AIDS in Africa" documentaries, which shook the established view on "infectious HIV", but like so much else important on that issue, was subsequently banned from further showing by BBC executives. My point here is, that the kind of mistreatment and censorial abuse to which Reich's work was subjected, and which many of the scientists on this group have experienced personally, is not isolated only to orgonomy, but is a wider trend in the natural sciences which extends to modern issues -- AIDS is one, greenhouse-gas-driven climate change is another. We both could make a list of censored scientists and physicians, I'm sure. "Political Correctness" and "Consensus Science" is killing us with their deadly consequences, and the censorial attitudes of the 1950s FDA have unfortunately spread today into other institutional structures, including environmental groups.
Further cleaning up the environment, lowering energy consumption, finding energy alternatives and so on, are all worthy goals which I have supported all my professional life. I also don't care to discuss political issues. But where politics intrudes into scientific matters, smashing down one side so as to silence them, one is not being political to point that out. I felt the Dispatches program did an excellent job in exposing just that, how politics has both misrepresented and silenced dissenting opinion on the greenhouse CO2 issue, as well as summarizing some of that contrary evidence.
I'd also recommend this article on a real-world aspect to CO2 hysteria, the current push to ban incandescent light bulbs and force everyone into using toxic fluorescents:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55213
This is typically brain-dead environmentalism. Whenever scientists or doctors get political power, watch out!
Some might forget how the Sierra Club and Audobon Society, as well as some European "greens" supported nuclear power plants. Or their current nearly-total ignoring of low-level EMF issues.
Best wishes,
James DeMeo
Sunday, April 15, 2007
2nd Announcement: Guided Independent Study Program in General Orgonomy, Summer 2007
We still have several openings remaining for this course...
Announcement
Guided Independent Study Program in General Orgonomy
Covering issues from Sex-Economy, Saharasia, Bions, Orgone Accumulator,
Atmospheric Orgone and Orgone Physics, with an emphasis
upon their relationship to modern science.
Instructor: James DeMeo, Ph.D.
Ashland, Oregon, USA
Meeting every day, 10 AM to 6 PM
from 7 - 11 July 2007 - Saturday through Thursday
Also, 6 July Friday Open House at the Greensprings Center (see Below)
Limited to 10 participants maximum. Make your reservations early.
Click here for more details:
http://www.orgonelab.org/events.htm
or
http://www.orgonelab.org/seminar7.htm
A 5-day Guided Independent Study Program in General Orgonomy is being organized, meeting each day and led by James DeMeo, Ph.D., Director of OBRL. Lecture/discussions and demonstrations of apparatus will occur in the mornings, with independent student projects in the afternoons, using the facilities of the lab.
Topics to be covered will include (as humanly possible, to the extent that time allows):
* Reich's sex-economic findings and DeMeo's findings on Saharasia.
* Bioelectrical experiments and environmental bio-fields.
* Microscopical investigations of bions and bion preparations.
* Orgone accumulator construction principles.
* Orgone accumulator seed-sprouting experiments.
* Orgone accumulator physical measurements and demonstrations: To-T, Electroscopical phenomena, water evaporation and surface tension.
* Observations in the Orgone Energy Accumulator Darkroom (room-sized accumulator) and of atmospheric orgone energy phenomena.
* Oranur physics and chemistry: Direct work with a cloud-chamber, studying background and low-level radioactive minerals.
* Orgone-charged vacuum tubes (VACOR) and orgone energy lumination.
* The Orgone Energy Field Meter, and similar devices.
* The Orgone Energy Motor: What is known, and unknown.
* Astronomical and orgone-energy observations in the OBRL Greensprings Observatory, with 16" Meade Richey-Cretein telescope, 3" aperture "battleship binoculars", and Solarscope.
* Field Trip on July 12th to Crater Lake National Park (weather permitting).
* Reich's sex-economic findings and DeMeo's findings on Saharasia.
* Bioelectrical experiments and environmental bio-fields.
* Microscopical investigations of bions and bion preparations.
* Orgone accumulator construction principles.
* Orgone accumulator seed-sprouting experiments.
* Orgone accumulator physical measurements and demonstrations: To-T, Electroscopical phenomena, water evaporation and surface tension.
* Observations in the Orgone Energy Accumulator Darkroom (room-sized accumulator) and of atmospheric orgone energy phenomena.
* Oranur physics and chemistry: Direct work with a cloud-chamber, studying background and low-level radioactive minerals.
* Orgone-charged vacuum tubes (VACOR) and orgone energy lumination.
* The Orgone Energy Field Meter, and similar devices.
* The Orgone Energy Motor: What is known, and unknown.
* Astronomical and orgone-energy observations in the OBRL Greensprings Observatory, with 16" Meade Richey-Cretein telescope, 3" aperture "battleship binoculars", and Solarscope.
* Field Trip on July 12th to Crater Lake National Park (weather permitting).
* First Days: Introduction to the Greensprings Center and OBRL facilities. Discussion of Reich's sex-economic principles, and DeMeo's findings on Saharasia as the logical outcome of applying sex-economic principles to existing anthropological cross-cultural data. Discussion of Reich's findings on emotions and bioelectricity, with demonstrations of apparatus for measurment of skin potentials, and also tree and atmospheric potentials following the methods of Harold S. Burr. Start of 1st series of orgone accumulator experiments, to demonstrate growth enhancement from seed-charging and other physical parameters.
* Middle Days: Principles of bionous disintegration, biological/atmospheric orgone energy, and the orgone energy accumulator. Discussions and demonstrations of Reich's findings on bions (orgone energy vesicles) and biogenesis with study at the microscope of radiating bions from sands. Use of natural sunlight in the microscope, Ott's discoveries on light frequency. Discussion and demonstrations of Reich's findings on orgone energy accumulators and orgone physics, the orgone energy field meter. Observations in Orgone Energy Darkroom (a room-sized accumulator).
* Last Days: Discussion and demonstrations of Reich's findings on oranur physics and chemistry, and principles of atmospheric-energetic functioning. Observations of radiation-tracks with a cloud-chamber. Start of 3rd series of orgone accumulator experiments; continuation of student projects. Open discussion periods, wrap up and analysis of results from orgone accumulator experiments, and student projects. Depending upon the weather, 12 July will be devoted to a field trip for observation of orgone energy phenomenon in nature, to nearby Crater Lake Park, one of the most beautiful and alive places in North America.
Enrollment is limited to 10 students maximum, at a cost of $600 for the full 5-day series. Students may elect to attend only a part of the Independent Study Program at a cost of $150 per day. It is recommended that students be familiar with Wilhelm Reich's original writings, and the writings of James DeMeo, to give a better foundation.
Dates: 7-11 July, Summer 2006
Times: 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM each day.
Where: At the O.B.R.L. Greensprings Center, 20 miles east of Ashland, Oregon in the forests of the Siskiyou Mountains. A map will be sent to registered seminar participants.
Registration Fee:
See the event website for details, on-line registration, or printable registration form.
PLEASE REGISTER AND MAKE YOUR OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE, AS OUR EVENTS TEND TO FILL UP QUICKLY, AND SPACE IS LIMITED! SPACE IS LIMITED IN THIS SEMINAR TO APPROXIMATELY 10 PARTICIPANTS!
Lunch:
There are local restaurants, but they are slow-service and unable to accommodate our seminar guests -- for that reason, and due to time constraints, we strongly recommend to bring your own lunch - sandwiches, fruits, or whatever you like. Tables and chairs are available for outdoor eating and a coffee/tea service will be provided. However, you will be responsible for your own lunch.
Other Activities
For those persons who arrive early, there will be a Friday afternnon Open House and Social Gathering, from 5-7 PM (July 6th) plus an evening lecture/discussion (7-9 PM) on a topic to be announced. Weather Permitting, the OBRL Orgone Energy Accumulator Darkroom will be open for viewing to seminar participants, during off-times. Likewise, the Greensprings Astronomical Observatory may be opened for evening celestial events. The region surrounding the OBRL Greensprings Center is also excellent for outdoor picnics and hiking, with Crater Lake National Park only 3-hrs drive to the north, with the bluest water in the world, and a favorite visiting place for our seminar guests.
For more information, click here.
http://www.orgonelab.org/events.htm
or
http://www.orgonelab.org/seminar7.htm
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If you find this material of value, please donate to OBRL:
http://www.orgonelab.org/donation
Or, purchase books on related subjects from our on-line bookstore:
http://www.naturalenergyworks.net
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